Junk. I haz it.

I have learned just how much crap can accumulate in a room of misc craft stuff over 4 years - 4 full garbage bags. That doesn't even count the huge pile of stuff I have to sort and fold for good will that is in the spare room.
Sheesh. Some of the stuff I looked at and thought "what the hell do I have *this* for?"...like 52 ADT signs, movies stubs, bits from broken tools (??), dried up paints and glue and tonnes of printed off recipes and things that seemed neat at the time but I have never even looked at since I brought them home. This room was the depository of all things with no home for the past few years and it showed...I'm glad to have cleared it out finally. It was really out of hand, and rather depresssing to do work in. Now we can move the computer up there and not lose it amongst piles of junk. And my mad scientist closet is somewhat set up and ready to go. I just need a few shelves for some random things and iPod speakers and I'll be good to go.

Now I should say that not every old recipe from upstairs was wasted. After finishign up with the upstairs room I made up a few loaves of bread from a recipe I found in there. I'd bought a butternut squash months ago and it was about to go bad. I kept staring at it wondering what to do with it (never thought of that when I bought it - it just looked cool). So I had it mashed up and decided to make somethig tasty with it on Sunday.
Holy freaking cow...did you know that butternut squash bread is absolutely fantastic? Seriously. Slightly sweet nutty soft and light bread baked to golden yumminess. I think the trick was I let the second raise go on for a while longer than it said (kitchen was cold and I was distracted). It was so very yummy...we practically ate a whole loaf of it in one day. Cold weather = baking in my life and I think from now on I'll make a point of watching a movie when I make bread for it to rise, because that was the trick in my chilly house. I'm officially calling this Crusade Bread from now on, as thanks to Indiana Jones and his Dad, it turned out amazing. I have some and some nice yummy stew for lunch. Mmmmmm.

Other than that...not much going on here. It's retardedly cold out and has been for days. It just won't let off. We went out for chinese new year on friday and ate an 8 course traditional meal. I ate *way* too much, but it was a lot of fun...there were even dragon dancers. In the hopes of advancing science, I put on my investigating hat to find that most Chinese beer tastes a lot like Heineken. J even won a door prize, so we got the whole experience.
I'm waiting for the year of the Ox to come next year (a Yin Earth year) so I can have my year. I find the Chinese horoscopes interesting, in my brief snoops into it the past few days. It seems all horoscopes from different cultures have around 12 categories, with cycles of multiples of 12, but unlike other horoscopes my description and J's (he's a tiger) tend to match us rather well in this one. As a bonus, mine said "beware the sheep" which still cracks me up. According to the horoscope I am: Dependable, calm, methodical, patient, hardworking, ambitious, conventional, steady, modest, logical, resolute, tenacious. I can be stubborn, narrow-minded, materialistic, rigid, demanding. I conquer life through endurance, application, and slow accumulation of energy (this is *very* true). I am genius in the art of meticulous planning, hardworking, discreet, modest, industrious, charitable, loyal, punctual, philosophical, patient, and good-hearted individual with high moral standards. On the downside, I can be self-righteous, vain, critical, judgmental, myopic, narrow-minded, petty, and pessimistic.
What can I say? When it's cold out and you have cabin fever, you read up on things :)
Gotta go be useful.
Later :)